<VV> Subject: Two seater prototypes.

[James P. Rice]

All:  The two seaters which started this conversation were running cars.
They were shortened versions of production cars. Thus they were built to
then current "safety standards".  Which mostly were nonexistent.  Body work
were modified for "what if" purposes, to see what the public thought.   Seen
in public multiple times, there were no styling secrets to hide.   All but a
few of the cars in the GM Heritage museum were - and are - running cars.
The Corvair based Astro I being one of the ones which never ran under its
own power so far as we know.  It was shown at the NY Auto Show in 1967,
along with the SOHC engine.  But by then the Corvair was on its way to
demise.  It was the most sophisticated chassis of the last three Corvair
based show cars. 

Jim Musser of Chevrolet R&D told me both the Monza GT and SS were designed
and built as pre-production prototypes.  Which, thanks to the paranoid
Corvette people, were shot down several levels above Musser's pay grade. 

On the other hand, we have all have lots of photos of styling exercises -
Corvair and otherwise - which were at their core large chucks of clay.
Never made it outside the corporation fences. No engines, drive trains,
suspensions and in so many cases, no interiors.   Lots of "what might have
beens" but we got what we got.  For various reasons.

I got a ride in the Monza SS at the '79 CORSA convention.  Chuck Jordan was
the driver.  I have never heard the Monza GT was a candidate for the
crusher.   The Astro I was, but Peter Koehler, then a GM employee, found out
about it and with some slight of hand and creative interpretation of
corporate rules, saved it.  Had it delivered to his home.  Then he called
Chuck Jordan, who really saved it.   I sat in it when it was in our Richman
VA museum.  Must have been about 1998 or so.  At 6'2", I could not close the
roof/door.   

Historically Yours,
		James Rice   

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2018 23:16:25 -0700
From: Jay Maechtlen <jaysplace at laserpubs.com>
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> Two seater prototypes.

On 10/19/2018 10:56 AM, Smitty Smith via VirtualVairs wrote:
> Smitty says;  Guarding corporate styling secrets was not the only reason
One-Off cars were crushed.  The studies were not built to any safety
standards and could not be certified.  A lot of them had little or no
suspension.  Body frames of square tubing were common and existed only to
support the body.  Any crash was likely to be catastrophic.  So companies
did not release the cars to the public for fear of being sued by the buyers.

heh - while some of us might build a car that way, nobody would expect it to
meet OEM standards.
Way different from getting something 'built by GM'.

-- 
Jay Maechtlen
SoCal
'61 2-dr modified w/fiberglass skin,
transverse 3.8 Buick V6 TH440T4 trans